April 10, 2003

Unsolicited plug: I'm gonna order, like, a couple dozen of these. The Power Strip Liberator Plus, designed to get those bulky AC adapter blocks up and away from power bars, freeing precious outlets. I might finally be able to tame some of the cable jungle under my desk! [tip o' the hat to Poor Clio]

Let My People Come to the Theatre: Two brief, fascinating histories of musical comedy's oft-overlooked underbelly, Adult Musicals of the 1970s and Industrial Musicals.

In 1963, the Xerox Corporation was the Cinderella story of the business world. When they introduced their weighty 914 copier in 1959, they had the ability to produce only 5 models a day, and costs were in the tens of thousands. Few thought that a bulky slab of metal like the 914 would perform well at all, much less revolutionize the copy business. Lucky for Xerox, the critics were wrong. In fact, they were way off. The 914 became known as the most successful product in history, doubling and tripling Xerox's sales figures over the next several years. In 1961, Xerox sales had reached 61 million. In 1962, they hit 104 million -- far more than company president J.C. Wilson could ever have imagined. In 1963, Xerox was poised to introduce their first desktop copier -- the 813. Since Wilson had flown his entire inner-circle of managers and salesmen to London the previous year to celebrate the 100 million mark, he wanted to try something different this year. Something rewarding, something that Xerox employees would remember forever.

What would he do? Well, Xerox quickly hired the Jam Handy Organization, a pioneer in the industrial film business. Jam Handy in turn hired Wilson Stone, an experienced film and Broadway composer. A cast and crew were hired, and voila! Xerox introduced Take It From Here, a musical about the company that was performed for their leading salesmen and executives at a banquet for two nights only, and then pressed in miniscule amounts as a souvenir record strictly for the attendees. The songs were big, brassy upbeat numbers following the adventures of Charlie, a good-natured rookie salesman for the company who learns why Xerox holds the key to a wonderful future.

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